“Gorgeously apocalyptic and subtly infused with a dark whimsy, Anthony Pontius uses a variety of media (mostly oils and pencil on wood panel) to create his haunted and stark landscapes that have a strange resonance to the unearthly works of Bosch, inhabited by strange creatures and degraded machinery. With narratives looking like the end of a bleak fairy tale that did NOT end happily ever after, the canvas is then splashed with streaks and blotches, and re-worked with pencil creating intricate scarred vignettes of ghostly words and images. Each painting is suffused with a smoggy, smothered glow that creates an evocative and enigmatic aura.” (Kirsten Anderson / Roq La Rue Gallery)

The caped cobra and his merry band of riders are a group of humans that evolved during the end of the technological world of old... in order to survive, they must coexist with nature by any means... much like early human nomads, the band traverse the land searching for their long lost connections to the world... as they grow the union establishes a new identity...

Pontius currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He has taught extensively at the Des Moines Art Center, the University of Kansas, the Lawrence Arts Center and the Herron School of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited in many galleries, universities and venues nationally.

Pontius creates via a variety of mediums (mostly oils on wood panel and graphite on paper) to create his beautifully apocalyptic landscapes that bring to mind the unearthly works of the great Hieronymus Bosch. Infused with a dark whimsy all his own, Pontius’ narratives bring to mind the dark fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. His work is infused with a spirit that is hard to pinpoint, a sort of underlying frentic energy created via his intense layering technique. Beneath the smog defused glow lies a ghostly underworld not that far removed from our own, although in Anthony’s world, there is no happily ever after.